When considering the literature that Jews of the Middle East and North Africa wrote in the first half of the twentieth century, one tends to think either of Iraqi Jewish authors, such as Anwar Shaul, or Sephardic writers from British Mandate Palestine, like Yiṣḥaq Shami and Yehuda Burla. In the case of Jewish writers of…

The advent of Islam in the seventh century brought profound changes to the Middle East and to the Jews living there. The unification through Islamic conquest of the formerly warring great empires of Christian Byzantium and Zoroastrian Persia opened up vast territories for long-distance exchange of goods within a single realm. For Jews, the predominantly…

In the works of Moroccan Jewish writers, authors, philosophers, and filmmakers, aspects are presented that illustrate a sense of double- or pluri-belonging, both to an abandoned homeland and to a new country of immigration; be it Israel, the mythical dreamt-of homeland; or, be it a foreign adopted country, devoid of any mythical connotations. Jews, originating…

Luqmat. Bumuelos. Sfenj. ʿAwwamé. Lokma. Zvingous. So many names for one deep-fried dough ball. How did these little-yeasted fritters—whatever you want to call them—spread all across the Mediterranean? And how did they become the preeminent Ḥanukka treat of the Sephardi world, from Morocco to Turkey? According to culinary historian Gil Marks in his Encyclopedia of…

For many Jews across the world, a central element of Ḥanukka is the kindling of fire throughout the eight nights of the holiday. While many of us—Sephardic and Ashkenazic alike—are familiar with the method of lighting taught by Hillel, one Sephardic community explicitly deviates from this widespread custom. For Spanish Jews who arrived in Aleppo…

From the Book of Genesis to 23andMe, Jews have always been irresistibly drawn to the practice and study of genealogy. Whether filling out a family tree, finding lost relatives, or hoping to reveal some long-hidden chapter of one’s ancestry, genealogy and genetic testing have given individuals a more concrete and biologically-based grasp on their place…